steering column/starter kill

[indierthanthou]

Does anyone have a detailed wiring diagram of the steering column? I am installing a starter kill device (similar to the keypad used in the transporter). I will post a writeup when its finished, giving detailed instructions with pictures if anyone is interested.

[shogun]

Here are all wiring diagrams by year
http://shark.armchair.mb.ca/~dave/BMW/e34/

[indierthanthou]

thanks alot, hopefully this will work out great.

[acidfire52]

You have my curiousity piqued... :p

Love to see what you have when you are done.

[billy]

thats not the best place to cut into wiring, its where a thief would look, plus if you cut into the starter wiring, you can just bypass it under the bonnet at the multi pin socket

youre better disabling the fuel pump and the power to the ecu

[indierthanthou]

I know how to hide the splices, im not a retard.
and how many thieves would know where to bypass it?
this has the option of disabling the fuel pump

[billy]

I know how to hide the splices, im not a retard.
and how many thieves would know where to bypass it?
this has the option of disabling the fuel pump

i recommend you loose the attitude, I am only offering my opinion and my experience, in that there are better systems to disconnect as the starter wire near to the key switch

and if I may say so, you are rather naive to think that a thief knows less than you do, and is unaware that you can still start it from the multi pin connector, or jump start it

you didnt mention you were disabling the fuel so we readers of your post had to guess,

you cant be that bright if you are unable to use a multimeter and work out what wire is what - so listen to people that have the skill you dont

[hakwuzhere]

Lotsa people stealing 89 535's near you?...

[BillionPa]

settle down there guys......

the starter wire should be the black/yellow one.

if you want to add something in there, wire the thing into the kickdown switch, so it has to be pressed to even activate the unlock device (then you can remove your foot before starting obviously)

also a discreet wiring into the fusebox to kill the fuel pump fuse without outward visible signs is a fantastic idea.

if you wanna fool a theif, wire the starter kill into the depths of the wiring loom just before it gets to the fuse/relay/whatever the hell it gets to. that way it will be hard to trace, and hopefully disable the diagnostic port pin as well (if not, disable that anyway)

and if you REALLY wanna go nuts on this thing, wire the thing into the crank position sensor wire in the e-box, that way if they manually ran the fuel pump and the starter, it would still not start.

have fun!

[indierthanthou]

didnt mean to come off as a jerk. my apologies. as far as the multimeter goes, yes i am able to do that, im basically just impatient and lazy (feel free to flame me for that one, say i dont deserve an e34, etc) when i can get what i need from a forum.

[indierthanthou]

nope, just paranoid. im also the guy who kept his mountain bike (05 specialized rockhopper...nothing special, but i still have $700 into it so far, including the bike...a lot of money when youre an apprentice plumber) in his bedroom for the first six months of owning it because someone stole his old one out of the garage.

[indierthanthou]

im not going to get too crazy with it. i was planning on getting into the loom to hide it, and wire underneath the pump fuse. if somebody wants this car bad enough to go to all the trouble of doing this, they will just break into it and wait for me to come out and pull a gun on me.

[indierthanthou]

another thing that just popped into my head, underneath the rear seat, opposite the battery is a power distribution system (im assuming thats what it is...i havent had the car too long yet, haven't had much time to figure out what does what). does the starter wire run to that block? if so, would anyone know which?

[Paul in NZ]

read the manual on the CODE function.....might save you some time money and forum friends!

[indierthanthou]

I know about it. I want to do it this way. not that there's anything wrong with CODE or anything

[indierthanthou]

I'm finally putting that doggone starter kill in, but I'm having trouble finding the black/yellow wire for the starter. but she's getting there! pics and a writeup once the whole thing is in and working

[indierthanthou]

Guys, help me out. I've spent the last hour looking for this wire, to no avail. does anyone have a picture of under their dash with the wire highlighted?

EDIT: ok, i took the bottom trim on the steering column off, exposing the ignition switch. none of the wires are the correct color! there is no black/yellow wire, or brown/black. now i'm getting irritated, i need this thing done and driveable by 6am tommorow. something tells me im going to have to go in with a multimeter and figure out what does what manually

[indierthanthou]

bump

[pingu]

If there's no black/yellow wire coming off the ignition switch (strange - that's what the wiring diagrams show - maybe a previous owner has already had a fiddle with the wiring) then why not use a multimeter to work out which of the ignition switch contacts is number 3 (the start position)?

If you've got a decent set of multimeter probes (in my opinion, more important than having a decent multimeter) then you should be able to use the probe to pierce through the insulation to the copper inside.

To avoid unnecessarily engaging the starter, you could remove the starter inhibit relay from the fusebox while you're playing with the multimeter.

[indierthanthou]

I tried using a multimeter on ohms with the battery unhooked, i didnt even think of taking out the relay. I will try that later today. But I still can't find what wire is hot in run and start, that wire is different than in the service manual as well. The multimeter will probably work for that too, I tried that with the battery off as well

[Macv]

Make it auto start too. Then you'll never need you key.

[pingu]

I'd have though it would be easier to put the battery back in and use the voltage setting on the multimeter. That way you can connect the other probe to the chassis (with no battery, I presume that you're currently trying to connect both probes across the switch contacts that you're trying to buzz out, which seems trickier than simply pushing one probe through a wire).

[pingu]

Once it's auto start, you'll be wanting to avoid 1980s haircuts and Knight Rider jokes:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hasselhoffing&defid=749357